Page 106 of Hero Unbound
Now Lincoln stopped typing and looked over at Theo, one dark eyebrow raised. “It probably would’ve done Gareth more harm if you’d actually thrown itathim.”
“I wasn’t trying to use it as a weapon. I think he might have taken Eva.”
Lincoln’s other eyebrow joined the first. “Any evidence to support that?”
“None whatsoever. Just my gut.”
Lincoln nodded then turned back to his multiple screens. “I’ll take your gut instinct over hard data any day.”
It was perhaps the highest compliment Linc was capable of giving.
“Plus, I’m assuming you didn’t get any of my other texts since you turned your phone into a stealth ninja star.”
“No, I turned it off after asking if you could trace it.”
Theo heard a noise from the kitchen area and raised an eyebrow of his own. “You have company I should know about?”
“Yeah.” Lincoln didn’t look up from his computer screen. “Freeloader hiding out.”
A few seconds later, Derek Bollinger walked down the hall, looking like death warmed over. “Hey.”
Theo shook his outstretched hand and used it to pull the other man in for a hug, slapping his back a couple of times before letting him go immediately. Derek didn’t always like to be touched. “What are you doing here?”
“Long story,” Derek muttered, scrubbing a hand down his face.
Lincoln looked over his shoulder. “But one very definitely worth telling.”
“Another time, Linc. It sounds like Theo has more pressing matters than my shithole of a life.”
“Shithole of a love life,” Lincoln interjected. “Your life isn’t so bad. Your love life, on the other hand…”
Theo looked over at Derek. “You needed advice on romance, and you came to Lincoln?”
Derek shrugged. “He’s my emotional support honey badger.”
Theo couldn’t help but crack a smile at that. “I’ll see if the therapists at Linear want to look into adding that to their repertoire.”
Theo didn’t know what was going on with his friend, but if he’d come to Lincoln, it was for a reason. Derek would share the details when he was ready.
“So, what’s going on?” Derek went into the office and sat on the couch closest to the window.
“I got texts from Eva saying she’s leaving town and wanted me to keep her dogs.”
“Is that a problem?” Derek asked. “You’ve got plenty of room on property.”
“She would never leave those dogs. She said that to me in so many words a couple of weeks ago. I know that people can change their minds, but my gut tells me there is something going on here that’s not right.”
“You still think something is wrong even after thefalsely accusing her ex-boyfriend of trying to hurt herincident?” Derek leaned back on the couch, looking more at ease now that they were talking about someone else’s problems.
Theo wasn’t surprised his friends had heard about what had happened yesterday. “Yeah. I know it sounds nuts, but—”
“You’re really going to wish you hadn’t turned your phone off,” Lincoln interrupted him. “If you hadn’t, you’d know something pretty interesting right now.”
Theo gritted his teeth when Lincoln didn’t continue. “You want to give me that info now, or you want me to pound it out of you five seconds from now?”
“I dug a little deeper on Gareth. Found absolutely nothing.”
“That’s a little less interesting than I was hoping.”